Who can be sued in Vioxx product liability cases?

A very interesting situation is emerging in a Vioxx lawsuit in Madison County. Dick Donohoo has sued Merck claiming that he suffered a heart attack after he used the drug. But he is also suing the pharmacy that filled his prescription. He contends that Walgreens, beacause it sold him a defective product, is also liable.

This is a gray area in American law. While retail stores generally do try to sell good products but they make mistakes all the time, particularly for low-priced products. In most cases, you can get a refund if the product breaks very quickly but there is no relief if it is out of warranty. For such complicated products like drugs, though, pharmacies simply sell all FDA-approved drugs and trust that the drug company has taken care of everything else.

Generally speaking it is understood that pharmacies are not liable if they are simply dispensing a drug as written in a prescription from a doctor. The question is who else can be sued? Doctors? Nurses? FedEx guy who delivered the drug to the pharmacy? Label printer?

A decision in a case like this will provide some insights.

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